13 Aug 2015

The Botswana Boxing Association(BoBA) will on Saturday August 15 bid farewell to a team of nine players that will be sent to represent the country in Africa Championship Tournament that will be held in Casablanca, Morocco. 

This short piece runs from August 18 - 23.  The team consists of eight male boxers and one female boxer, Ms Keneilwe Rakhudu of 64 kg category who is the current local national champion. 

Rakhudu is a versatile player who normally competes in both 64kg and 69kg.

She is also a gold medallist from the Zone IV tournament that was held in East London South Africa last year. 

According to the publicity and information secretary of BoBA Kenny Maragana, the team is in good shape and promises Batswana to expect good results since all the players who will be participating have been doing well recently.

“The team is leaving tomorrow for Morocco to take part in the Africa Championship Tournament. What I can say is that the players are in good shape. 

There are no reported injuries. If they can get into this tournament with the same performance and attitude they displayed recently, I don’t think there will be much to worry about. We saw brilliant performances from all the players recently in the National Championship and Best of the Best Tournament, the two major local tournaments,” he said. 

He further stated that even though all the athletes are currently doing well, more focus will be on the Bagwasi brothers, Kabel and Kagiso, who are without any doubt on top of their careers. 

Kagiso Bagwasi, a bronze medallist from Africa cup tournament that was held in South Africa will be a marvel to watch.

He was only beaten by Nigel Amos for the most prestigious award of Best Sport Person of the year.
He also said that the players will use this tournament to prepare themselves for the All Africa games that is scheduled for September in Congo, Brazaville. 

“This tournament is very important because it will give the players the much needed practice and confidence for the coming All Africa event,” he said. For his part the national coach, Lechedzani Master Luza said that his players are physically and mentally ready for the tournament. 

They are ready for now and all that is left is to work on their technique,” he said.

The team comprises Tefo Rrammupudu- 49kg, Thabiso Mpolokeng- 52kg, Kefentse Molalapata- 56kg, Kabelo Bagwasi- 60kg, Kagiso Bagwasi- 64kg, Mmusi tswiigi 75kg, Zibani Chikanda -75kg, Thabang Motsewabeng -81kg and Keneilwe Rakhudu- 64kg while the technical team consists of Luza who is the head coach,Emmanuel Galeboe ,assistant coach and Phetogo Tsheko, the team manager. ENDS